Vietnam social media users face crime and fraud

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - In May, Tran Thien An from the southern province of
Bac Lieu was sentenced to eight years in prison for raping a 12-year-old he met
via the internet.

Living in Ho Chi Minh City, the child, N, met An on social media in October 2016. At
the end of the month, An asked N to visit his house in Bac Lieu province, where
the two had sexual intercourse.

An’s crime is one of many cases of wrongdoing and fraud facilitated by social
media. With 70 percent of the population having access to the internet and 53
million people on Facebook, Vietnam faces many challenges in ensuring people,
especially children, are safe on the internet.

In 2013, social media users were enraged by a young mother in the central city
of Da Nang, who took advantage of her son’s congenital heart defect to
fraudulently raise money.

The mother, Nguyen Tran Hoai Tham, posted about her son’s condition on her
Facebook account and asked for donations from social media users for his
surgery. It was reported that only a quarter of the 200 million VND (8,860 USD)
that Tham received was spent on the surgery. She used the remaining amount to
buy expensive phones and tablets for herself.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting in Hanoi last month, Minister of Information and
Communications Truong Minh Tuan said that the rise of false information that
elicits hatred and violence and hurts the nation’s unity has rendered the
negative effects of social media undeniable. But ultimately, the actions and
claims of wrongdoers are more important than the mediums by which they are
delivered, he said.

“Social media should be considered a tool, a road used by both travellers and
thieves,” he said. “Their attitude is the heart of all problems.”

False, misleading information mostly appears on foreign social media platforms,
Minister Tuan added. Because social media can seem distant from concrete
reality, social media users think they have the freedom to say anything without
taking responsibility for it, he said.

Vietnamese social media users are also threatened by cyber attacks.

They are among those with the lowest awareness of cyber risks in the world,
said Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam.

“International surveys showed that while 60 percent of people in other
countries are aware of the risks of being attacked by malicious software, only
11 percent of Vietnamese are,” he said.

Dr Dinh Thi Thuy Hang, Director of the Press Training Centre under the Vietnam
Journalists Association, said that it is necessary to establish regulations on
social media use and teach them to children.

“For example, ‘Do not use social media to spread gossip and cruel rumours about
each other’,” she said at a conference on communication crises in social media
in Hanoi last month. “Schools and families should make stronger efforts to
educate young social media users on these matters."

To manage information on social media more effectively, the information
ministry recently requested foreign social media companies comply with Vietnam’s
regulations and remove false information that harms the country.

In particular, it has requested the video sharing website Youtube remove about
5,000 videos with inappropriate content, said Minister Truong Minh Tuan.

The ministry will revise its legal documents to ensure stricter measures
against cyber fraudulence, he added. It will focus on promoting Vietnamese
social media platforms in the coming time, he said.-VNA